Missional Church and Mass Marketing

Church marketing is a debated topic. I have to confess that some of the church marketing I've seen has not been helpful in sharing the gospel with some of the skeptics that I talk to. In fact, they either ignore it, make fun of it, or are antagonistic toward it. My question is, can marketing be an effective tool of a missional church?

Eddie Gibbs in his book Church Next talks about how we need to make a shift from being market-driven to mission oriented. Does that mean we should not use marketing as a tool if we are missional? I think Eddie raises a good point stating "Our post-Christian, neopagan, pluralistic North American context presents crosscultural missionary challenges every bit as daunting as those we would face on any other continent."

He suggests that there are some faulty assumptions inherent in the marketing mentality of the North American church. He goes on to say "Most pastors and church leaders have no missiological training. Consequently they resort to marketing strategies in place of missionary insights in their attempts to reach out to a population that is becoming increasingly distanced from the church.

Eddie doesn't totally dismiss marketing; however, he suggests that most of our church marketing is rooted in a weak ecclesiology. He continues saying "marketing insights and tools will prove increasingly inadequate as North America moves still further into its postmodern, post-Christian and neopagan phase." What do you think?